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Area cities get reprieve on shelter issue
Governor Davis signs animal bill into law
By Jeff Kearns
Gov. Gray Davis let South Bay cities off the hook last week by signing a bill that will give them one year to find a way to shelter their stray animals.
The bill, signed by Davis on July 12, delays the enactment of a law mandating shelters to hold stray animals longer. The law would have gone into effect on July 1.
The Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley, which contracts sheltering services with cities in the valley, said that it can't comply with the law because overcrowding would force them to euthanize more adoptable animals. In December, the Humane Society announced it would be getting out of the sheltering business, leaving cities to fend for themselves.
Now, with another year to work on a solution, San Jose has taken the lead on a multi-city project that would help the smaller municipalities that can't afford to build their own shelters.
San Jose Deputy City Manager Kay Winer says the plan will involve the creation of a joint-powers administration. A draft of that JPA has already been written by Milpitas' city attorney, and will require the approval of each city attorney for the municipalities involved.
To get the ball rolling, San Jose hired a consultant for the project and will start advertising this week for an architect to design the new shelter.
The consultant estimates that a shelter serving San Jose and the other eight cities would cost $13 million to $17 million, but the city could shave off $2 million or $3 million if it uses land it already owns. The facility would probably require a 41,500 square foot building on a 2.9 acre parcel.
The shelter won't necessarily be located in San Jose. According to Winer, who has been managing the project for the city, the shelter needs to be centrally located, easy to get to and preferably close to public transit lines.
Whatever does get built will also have get-acquainted rooms for animals to meet their prospective new owners and community rooms that can be used by neighbors as meeting places after the shelter closes for the day, Winer says.
"New animal shelters are nothing like what dog pounds used to be like," Winer said, adding that the facility will be soundproofed and well-ventilated so it doesn't smell. "It's a real community asset."
But a regional shelter won't solve the cities' short-term problem.
It will take two years to build a new shelter, said Captain Kirk Sanfilippo, Sunnyvale's animal control director, leaving the cities a year without any sheltering.
Five West Valley cities are quietly negotiating with the Humane Society to keep things the way they are until mid-2001.
Bill Woska, Cupertino's director of animal control services, says they want to be protected in case the new shelter isn't ready by the July 1, 2000 deadline.
"Cupertino and the other West Valley cities--Saratoga, Campbell, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno--are going to be negotiating with the Humane Society," he said. "We've already had discussions to extend our project contract from June 30, 2000 to June 30, 2001. The legislation was extended to July 1, 2000, and our concern is we're not going to have a shelter ready in a year. It's going to take us longer than that."
Humane Society spokesperson Leslie Baikie confirms that the two sides are negotiating for an extension, but says there's no formal agreement yet. "We're trying to do whatever we can to make this a smooth transition."
While Sunnyvale has not yet approached the Humane Society about extending its sheltering contract to 2001, the city is planning to do so, Sanfilippo said.
"When we do have a regional facility in the county, it's more than a sheltering issue," Sanfilippo said. "It's a licensing issue, an adopting issue and an animal control issue. It's bigger than just not having a shelter."
In the meantime, Sanfilippo is investigating the possibility of changing Sunnyvale's ordinances to reduce the number of animals it brings to the Humane Society's shelter. Sunnyvale is one of the few cities in the area that does its own animal control.
The original bill that changed sheltering laws, which was sponsored by State Senator Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), passed in October 1998.
Under Hayden's "no-kill bill," all strays will be held for five days, and feral cats and owner-surrendered animals will be held for four. No official guidelines existed before the bill.
Assemblymember Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) introduced the one-year extension bill last year.
Now, the Humane Society says it will focus only on adoption, spay/neuter education and community outreach programs, and will stop taking strays.
When the new regional shelter is built, Baikie said the Humane Society will work with it to place animals in new homes.
"When [an animal] comes in to us, we'd give it a health and behavioral evaluation, and if it passes, we'd take it in, but if it doesn't, we'd send it to the other shelter, where it would also have another chance at adoption," Baikie said. "It's going to be a good thing."
During the last fiscal year, the Santa Clara facility took in about 35,000 animals, and about 60 percent of those had to be euthanized.
Until 1993, Santa Clara County provided animal control services to the cities, but that program was cut because of budget shortfalls. The Humane Society took over for the cities, while the county kept providing animal control to unincorporated areas. Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills are served by Palo Alto's shelter.
The Humane Society serves Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale.
Staff writer Michelle Ku contributed to this report.
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Cupertino, California Since 1947
